After an eight-year absence from Nevada online poker, Real Gaming relaunched with a new concept that combines five-card draw and video poker. It is an innovative idea with a terrible execution.
The game is available at Real Gaming, called Real Poker in the app stores, and on four skins through marketing partnerships with licensed gaming establishments. The brands are MVP, Plaza, Rampart, and Terrible’s. The casinos do not operate the poker site. Real Gaming manages everything.
This site offers the worst video poker odds and player support Vegas Advantage has ever seen. It also has payment processing fees and broken software.
Nobody home at the support desk
Players must submit sensitive personal information to open a Real Gaming account. This includes scanning the bar code on the back of a driver’s license, entering a Social Security Number, and submitting to a geolocation check.
I first submitted this information on the Plaza skin in September 2024. The system claimed my identity could not be verified, even though I created the account at the address on my driver’s license and geolocation identified my device. I contacted support as instructed but failed to reach anyone.
On December 11, 2024, I opened an account on the Rampart skin. Again, the system failed to verify my identity after I provided a mountain of sensitive personal data. Real Gaming support failed to respond to two inquiries sent to the email address in the error messages.
This would be enough for Vegas Advantage to discourage players from trying Real Gaming. Unfortunately, the situation is much worse.
Massive deposit and withdrawal fees
If your account is verified, it’s time to deposit. As PlayUSA reported, depositing involves fees ranging from 9% to 12%.
According to a report, withdrawal fees are levied at a rate of 4-7%. Players must be extremely lucky to worry about withdrawal fees because the odds are so bad, as shown in the next section.
Paytable is worse than any Las Vegas video poker game
The main poker game has a $2 buy-in. That is split evenly between a heads-up or three-handed poker hand with no rake and a paytable based on hand strength.
The poker game side of the bet is an all-in ante. There are no betting rounds. Five cards are dealt. Players choose which ones to hold and discards are replaced. The best hand takes the pot.
The other dollar goes to the video poker bonus paytable. Here are the payouts:
- Royal flush: $4500
- Four of a kind: $70
- Full house: $15
- Three of a kind: $3.50
- Pair of jacks, queens, kings, or aces: $0.50
Straight flushes, flushes, straights, and two pair do not receive a payout. This paytable returns 87.65%. The royal flush accounts for 15.5% of it. A royal flush is typically around 2% in Jacks or Better games.
Every $2 bet theoretically loses about $0.12 per hand
The bonus paytable holds 12.35%. That causes a theoretical loss of $0.1235 per hand when using perfect strategy.
A player who deposits $25 eats a $2.25 deposit fee, leaving $22.75 for action. This will last 184 hands, on average.
Most Las Vegas locals and downtown casinos offer 99% video poker. A player betting $2 per hand theoretically loses $0.02 per hand and has no deposit fees at a 99% video poker game. The $25 theoretically lasts 1250 hands at 99% video poker with $2 bets. The Real Gaming player loses nearly seven times faster than the one at a 99% video poker machine.
Las Vegas Strip casinos and Nevada taverns return about 97% at video poker. A $25 deposit theoretically lasts 417 hands. That is 2.27 times longer than the Real Gaming player.
The 99% video poker player will find games with a variance between 21 and 42. Real Gaming’s paytable variance is 712 due to the royal flush being 15.5% of the payback.
The above does not account for Real Gaming’s withdrawal fees, which casinos and taverns do not have.
Major strategy changes that affect the Real Gaming action
Players must make two strategy changes on Real Gaming. Since two pair does not pay anything, players should hold a three-card royal flush over it. Players should also hold a bare 10 before throwing everything away since the royal flush payout is 15.5% of the paytable. However, this also affects the heads-up action on the dollar. Players must decide if trying for the big hand or winning the head-up bet is more important.
Source: Wizard of Odds Video Poker Calculator
Complaint filed with Nevada regulators
Since Real Gaming twice took my sensitive information but failed to verify me and never responded to my attempts to reach support, I filed a complaint with Nevada regulators. The process asks players to try every way to resolve the issue with the site and gives three contact options. The Real Gaming support link on the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s website goes to a 404 error. The phone number is disconnected. The email address is blank. That should not surprise anyone who has followed regulated Nevada online poker.
I filed my complaint stating that I felt Real Gaming was a data mining scam since it did nothing useful with my personal information and had no player support. That was seven days ago. I never heard back from a regulator or the poker site.
Nevada’s online poker regulation has been a disaster. This is just another example. WSOP fails at the most basic aspects of its operation.
Real Gaming’s first online poker attempt had unplayable software. It was so bad that players could leave the table before the blinds and return after the button without posting. That was one of many bugs. A Play Nevada review concluded, “Real Gaming is one of the worst online poker sites in the US industry from a game play standpoint.”
Nevada’s best online poker hope is for BetMGM to launch. However, that seems like a long shot.
